1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly to a left-right air direction control apparatus of an air conditioner adapted to control the flow of air discharged in the right-to-left direction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, air conditioners can be classified into an exclusive cooling air conditioner, a cooling/humidifying exclusive air conditioner, and a cooling-or-heating air conditioner according to function, and can be classified into an integral type air conditioner and a separation type air conditioner according to structure.
The cooling-or-heating air conditioner is operated by one system incorporating an indoor unit and an outdoor unit and performs a heating or a cooling operation according to a user's need. The indoor unit 10 according to the conventional separation type air conditioner is provided with a front panel 20 and a rear panel 30 to form an exterior appearance, as illustrated in FIG. 1.
The front panel 20 is arranged with a front grill 40 and a discharge outlet 50 which is in turn provided with vertical air direction control means 60 for controlling the up-down direction of air discharge.
The indoor unit 10 is provided therein with an air filter 70 which is disposed in front of an evaporator 80. The evaporator 80 is provided at a rear side thereof with a blower 90 for blowing heat-exchanged air into the room through the discharge outlet 50.
The discharge outlet 50 is provided with a plurality of horizontal air direction control means 100 for controlling the left-right direction of air discharge.
The vertical air direction control means 60 is automatically controlled by a driving motor (not shown) disposed at one side of the indoor unit 10, and the horizontal air direction control means 100 is automatically or manually controlled by a driving motor (not shown) mounted at the other side of the indoor unit 10.
In other words, the horizontal air direction control means 100 is provided as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, with a plurality of swing vanes 110, a support member 120, a cover member 130 and a connecting member 140. At this time, each of the swing vanes 110 has a body 111 integrally formed with a hinge axle 112, a fixing axle 113 and a handle 114. The vanes can be swung by a motor (not shown) which slides the connecting member, or swung manually by a user by means of the handle 114.
The support member 120 is formed at an upper end thereof with a drain tray surface 121 which is in turn provided therein with a plurality of hitching protruders 122 and is provided with a plurality of hinged grooves 123 disposed under the hitching protruders.
Furthermore, the drain tray surface 121 is provided at a predetermined interval with a plurality of hitching grooves 124 and screw holes 125. The cover member 130 is formed lengthwise at predetermined intervals with a plurality of hitching grooves 131 under which there is formed a plurality of hinge grooves 132. The hinge grooves 123 and 132 are alignable with one another to rotatably support the hinge axles 112.
The cover member 130 is integrally provided with a plurality of elastic hitching protruders 133 and with a plurality of brackets 134, respectively. The connecting member 140 is formed with a plurality of fixation holes 141.
However, there is a problem in the conventional horizontal air direction control apparatus in an air conditioner thus constructed in that the hinge grooves 123 and 132 can develop improper driving and frictional noises during rotation of the hinge axles 112 due to warpage (discrepancy of dimensions), flash phenomenon or the like occurring at the hinged grooves 123 and 132.
Still worse, there is another problem in that the plurality of swing vanes 110 hinged by the support member 120 and the cover member 130 result in increased manufacturing costs due to the large number of parts involved therein and the resulting complexity of construction.